Carleton 1-Laval 4

Carleton have been rocked by Laval Rouge et Or. The game ended about an hour ago, so scores are trickling in now. The host Ravens, though, might be wishing they weren't.

Losing 4-1 is bad enough when you're not hosting the CIS tournament.

Carleton scored before the break to go ahead 1-0, but then conceded 4 goals in 28 minutes to give Laval the commanding win.

The actually story isn't in yet,but the box score is, and already it doesn't look good for the Ravens. They now double the number of red cards to two so far. In just four games two teams have already had a man sent off. No word yet on what exactly Andrew Park did to warrant the two yellows he received, hopefully that will be forthcoming soon.

This is not just bad news for Carleton. It's also bad news for Ottawa as a city. The attendance for this game is a great big zero, which may indicate the numbers aren't in yet (or it could simply be wrong--that happens, too), but so far,t he attendance numbers have been posted.

You see, all this is significant because Ottawa are bidding for an MLS soccer team. Currently, only Toronto has a team in North America's top soccer league: Toronto FC. But there has been much interest from both Montreal and Vancouver revolving around those cities bids to turn their current USL-1 sides into MLS teams (USL-1 is technically a division below MLS, but it is often seen as equal or even superior).

Ottawa, however, doesn't have a USL-1 team. that didn't stop Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk from launching a bid anyway.

Simply put, a poor showing by the city's universities both at the gate and on the pitch in a fairly major tournament (CIS gets national media attention, check out TSN's page, if you like) won't do anything to help show Ottawa is a good, viable city. The poor gate numbers--which, hopefully, will be revised upwards--don't show much passion for the sport in Ottawa. The poor performance from Carleton doesn't reflect as directly on the MLS bid, but ti still puts Ottawa in not necessarily bad, but decidedly gray light.

Fortunately, Ottawa still has the women's University of Ottawa Gee-Gees to help them out. the score from that game hasn't wafted my way yet. With a little luck, Ottawa's ladies will salvage some pride.